Edastuskiri

Dear National Focal Points for Tuberculosis,

To further inform your decision-making process in relation to the nominations for the TB monitoring data collection, please consider the following clarifications:

• During the data collection, we will kindly request a single, coordinated national response from each EU/EEA country.

• We encourage collective work in responding the online questionnaire. To facilitate the submission process, TB NFPs can delegate the task of replying to the questionnaire among several people (i.e. the national nominees). Thus, we will need to grant these experts access to REDCap and therefore the nomination process we have just initiated.

• At least one person should be nominated. If you would like to nominate more than 10 respondents, please contact us via email.

• The group of experts could include both general experts as well as specialists, covering the areas of TB policy and implementation, TB programme and planning, TB prevention, TB diagnosis, TB treatment and care, community engagement and people-centred care. It is important to keep in mind is that all responses should reflect the country-level situation.

• Please see below a general description of the topics included in the TB monitoring questionnaire that will be released in April, to inform your decision on whom to involve at national level. Please note that most of the questions are single/multiple choice. There is always an open question at the end of each section to provide clarifications or further information. We will also request links to national documents or (clinical) guidance documents.

Please use the following link to submit your nominations:  https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/TBmonitoringnominations

We would be grateful for to receive your replies latest by 26 March 2025.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Senia Rosales-Klintz, on behalf of the ECDC TB team.

To: National Focal Points for Tuberculosis

CC: National Coordinators, ECDC Country Cooperation

Dear National Focal Points for Tuberculosis,

As part of our ongoing efforts to prevent and control tuberculosis (TB) within the EU/EEA, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is enhancing its monitoring system for TB in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The enhanced TB monitoring system is designed to complement existing surveillance data with contextual policy and practice information. The findings will help identify gaps in the TB response that need acceleration to achieve the incidence and mortality reduction targets set by the SDGs.

Data collection will be conducted by an ECDC supplier - the Centre of Excellence for Health, Immunity, and Infections (CHIP) at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark. In October 2023, ECDC selected CHIP to assist in monitoring progress towards the SDGs related to HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and TB. This project aims to ensure alignment across disease areas and produce both disease-specific and cross-disease outputs. The data collected within the TB monitoring will be supplemented with surveillance information provided by countries through the European Surveillance System (TESSy).

We are writing to request the nomination of national experts that will the respondents from your country the upcoming data collection on TB monitoring.

The success of this monitoring effort relies heavily on the engagement of a diverse range of stakeholders. Hence, we suggest the involvement of TB programme managers, clinicians, drug procurement specialists, microbiologists, civil society and NGO representatives in discussion and completion of the monitoring questionnaire. Their collective expertise is crucial for the comprehensive response to the monitoring questions, which focuses on policies and practices related to: TB prevention, TB testing and diagnosis, TB treatment, and enabling environment for TB management.

The data collection will be done the REDCap platform during April-May 2025. At least one person from each country should be registered in REDCap to complete the questionnaire, although multiple individuals can have access. One designated person will be responsible for verifying the data.

Please use the following link to submit your nominations:  https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/TBmonitoringnominations

We would be grateful for to receive your replies latest by 26 March 2025.

After the nomination of national experts is completed, we will reach out to them directly with the request to sign ECDC Terms of Use for REDCap and process their registration at the platform.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if you require more time to complete the nomination process.

Thank you for your cooperation and commitment to improving TB control in the EU/EEA.

Best regards,

Senia Rosales-Klintz, on behalf of the ECDC TB team.